Phil followed his companion down the bamboo stairs and into the street, where a crowd of curious natives had gathered on hearing the startling shot. The lads moved their weapons menacingly, not knowing or trusting the temper of the crowd which backed away cringingly from the Americans. A glance down the street brought a glad cry from the midshipmen as they saw a squad of soldiers advancing from the direction of headquarters. A loud voice in the Visayan tongue from the building they had just left was answered by many excited voices in the gathered crowd, and then several women advanced slowly, holding up their hands in sign of peace, their bodies close together as if for mutual protection. The lads scarcely noticed the approach of the women, so occupied were they in watching the building in which were imprisoned five of the traitors who had been biting the hand of the master that fed them. A swift glance over his shoulder showed Phil that the advancing women were scarce ten paces away from Sydney, who was guarding one corner of the house, while he was some thirty feet away, guarding the other three sides. The soldiers were not over a block away and hastening toward him; he could hear the rattle of their gun slings, and the thud of their heavy shoes on the hard road-bed. Then again as he cast an uneasy glance at this line of women his heart froze within him while his voice failed, for he had caught a fleeting glimpse of a savage face peering over their shoulders. “Look out for yourself,” Phil cried, directing his revolver at the line of women and firing blindly. In that second his disgust and wrath were so great at the dastardly strategy under the guise of friendship that he would not have felt a qualm of conscience if one of these unnatural women had fallen before his bullet. The women halted, sudden fear on their faces, while from between them dashed a half dozen savage natives armed with bolos. As they charged on the surprised midshipmen they cried out lustily in their guttural language the war-cry of the bolo-man who has received the charm of the Anting-Anting which to his superstitious mind makes him invulnerable against the Americans’ bullets. They came boldly on while Sydney jumped backward quickly to Phil’s side and the two lads emptied the contents of their revolvers into the mass of naked brown men flourishing their keen blades above their heads in an endeavor to close with their hated foe. The women had run screaming with terror back to the safety of the crowd, taking refuge within the densely packed houses. With their revolvers empty and but three of their half dozen assailants writhing in the road, the plucky midshipmen faced the onrush of the fanatics. Converting their revolvers into clubs, they awaited what seemed to them certain death. Their one hope for safety lay in running away from the charging bolo-men and toward the soldiers now scarce two hundred yards away, but turn their backs on an enemy they could not.